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Perfect kind of pprospect for the Yankees. High upside, big chance of bust, but that’s OK. The Yankees don’t have a big demand for below average to average players, so the “star-or-nothing” outcome works fine for them.

And I think it’s the best approach to pitching in general, given the huge bust rates for even the tippy top prospects. Assemble as many high upside arms as you can, don’t worry about downside, or how far they are from the majors, and how enough of them make it.

Then spend your $ on the very best FA position players you can find/afford.

Can anyone count him as a “dud” I mean it was his first full season as a professional, he has zero track record of success anywhere, and he’s coming off TJ. What did you guys expect? I mean yeah his ceiling is RJ from the right side, but that’s just because of his stuff…there’s a HUGE gap between where he is now and there, to put it this way Sergio Mitre is closer to becoming the next RJ from the right side than Andrew Brackman is. Realistically the best the Yankees hope for is Daniel Bard.

They said 2009 was going to be a big year for him. Now that it didn’t go well people are saying 2010 is going to be a big year for him. But what happens if he struggles then? Is 2011 going to be a big year for him? I wish he hadn’t signed such a huge contract, the pressure on this guy must be incredible. It’s a good thing they can go slow with him, but what happens next year? He’s still going to be one of the oldest in the league. At some point he should be dominating anyways. I’m concerned that he’d sell more jeans than strikeout major leaguers.

No shit they said that 2009 was going to be a big year for him. That’s what organizations do to instill confidence in their players, what were they going to say:

“He could be great, but then again it’s far more likely that he ends up gobbling more dick than Kobe Tai in a gonzo film. It’s extremely unlikely that he’s somewhere in the middle”

The Yankees were stupid to sign him to a major league deal, there’s no reason to not play hardball with an oft injured college kid who has zero record of longterm success in baseball who also needs TJ surgery.

2009 was a big year for him because he needed to PITCH. And that was accomplished. Sure, everyone would have liked for him to have dominated and at least got to AA. But the biggest deal was him pitching the full season.

2010 is a big year for him because now he needs RESULTS. He’ll probably start the year in Tampa, and he needs to finish it at least in Trenton, putting up good numbers at both levels.

If not, 2011 will start with him no longer on the 40 man roster, which potentially means no longer on the Yankees.

Remember, Randy Johnson also struggled early in his career. Tall guys typically take longer to rebound from injury due to body type and mechanics. Lots of moving parts to wrangle. Brackman has enormous upside and should be a big league contributor by 2011, potentially sliding into the rotation in ’12.